quail having trouble standing

[jbob]

I have 2 of the 16 quail not standing , they just sit and look around . They both are females and all eat the same type of food and seam to have been laying eggs on a regular basis. They have not done this before. I tried picking them up and checking them for anything wrong , and all I can find is they don't want to stand on there own. Anybody else seen this.

 

[dc3085]

Is their water font in direct sunlight?

Has anything scared them enough to make them hit their heads on the ceiling?

Do they stagger and sit down when you pick them up and set them back down?

Have they eaten any moldy or wet feed?

Usually problems walking come from either encephalitis or nerve damage. They get nerve damage if they do not drink enough water in the course of a day. They get encephalitis from eating wet or molding feed. It is almost always nerve damage though when one cant walk right. There are a bunch of reasons why they sometimes won't drink water during the day, like being bullied off the water, not enough watering space (for a dozen birds you would want a couple linear feet of watering space), or the water is hot and they don't want to drink it.

There are some other ailments that cause them to walk funny/not stand but they are much less common than what I've mentioned above.

Nerve damage can occasionally heal but most times will lead to the bird needing to be euthanized. If they hit their heads "boinking" the ceiling they usually will heal given time, if isolated and kept warm. If encephalitis you'd need to consult a vet, but again that is very uncommon.

 

[cruisermedic]

I had two that had broken a broken leg. The looked OK. They didn't move though. Does one foot grip and not the other? This is what lead me to think a broken leg in mine. I couldn't didn't know for sure until I culled them. Found the break and a lot of blood in the meat around it. I think the leg just fell through the wire when the male jumped them trying to breed.

 

[jbob]

They have a gallon water feeder in their coop for 6 birds , they don't even try to stand ,they flopped around in their cage to get to the feed and water. I have never had quail act like this before. I'm going to give them a couple of days and hopefully they get better. Thank you for your help.

 

[dc3085]

Does the water font sit in the sun? If it does it can easily get too hot for them to want to drink.